More
oil/gas exploration needed
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
01 13 08
Exploration
for oil and natural gas fell last year at a time
when it was most needed, says Neal and
Massy Energy Business Unit executive chairman Gervase
Warner.
"We're at the point where we need a lot of
activity," Warner said.
He said the impact of the exploration shortfall
cannot be ignored as the Government seeks to diversify
the energy sector into new sub-sectors and increase
linkages with the non-energy sector, as the Government
has pledged to ensure that the next bid round will
see much more investment from upstream companies.
Warner raised his concerns about the lack of exploration
as he addressed Masters of Business Administration
(MBA) students during a luncheon hosted by Neal
and Massy Holdings Ltd at the 6th Annual Caribbean
MBA Conference at the Hilton Trinidad hotel, St
Ann's.
Warner spoke to an audience that was mostly comprised
of Caribbean-born MBA students now attending the
Harvard Business School and the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania.
A former Harvard graduate himself, Warner's address
had the feel of a lecture on the energy sector
as he carefully weaved a picture of the relationship
between oil and gas and the economy that thrives
on it.
"We've had a drop-off in exploration activity
at the very time we need to increase it...It's
right around 2005, 2006, we had an unsuccessful
by all accounts, bid rounds for new off-shore blocks
and that's resulted in not as much exploration
activity," Warner said.
"And in an energy based economy that's bad," he
added.
He sought to explain to them the importance of
finding new oil and gas fields to an economy which
is mainly dependant on the energy sector for its
revenue.
"For those of you, you know, who are not
in the energy sector, basically that's the stuff,
the fuel that has to come out to actually be produced
to be sold into markets or be processed into fuels
and LNG for exports or to ammonia or to methanol," Warner
said.
He
then stressed, "If you don't have that
exploration activity when you first start producing
a well, basically it goes down. The production
levels go down. The pressure is highest when it
is first drilled and it looses pressure as the
production rates drop. So a basic fundamental premise
is that you always have to keep reclaiming the
new fields that you're developing and if you're
not feeding."
Warner highlighted the fact that the energy exploration
multinationals operating in Trinidad and Tobago,
such as bpTT, BG and BHP Billiton, complained to
the Government that there were not enough fiscal
incentives for them to undertake the increasingly
risky deep water exploration.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning had promised that
the Government will address the issue during this
financial year when he delivered the 2007/2008
Budget last September.
Warner, however, said this was just one area of
concern as he addressed the ongoing diversification
of the energy sector into downstream activities
and the impact this will have on existing reserves.
Manning had earlier delivered an address at the
Caribbean MBA conference and said that there must
be the developing and strengthening of new and
existing energy sub-sectors.
"I raise these issues merely to indicate
that development of our energy sector is in no
way inconsistent with the development of our non
energy sector," Manning said.
Story
by Juhel Browne from
Trinidad Express
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday,
January 9th 2008
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